


Dear Agony

by DoodlesOfTheMind



Series: Of Crows and Feral Cats [2]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Gen, Itachi and Sasuke Final Fight, Songfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-15
Updated: 2014-01-29
Packaged: 2018-01-08 19:29:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 14,823
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1136498
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DoodlesOfTheMind/pseuds/DoodlesOfTheMind
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>I have nothing left to give. I have found the perfect end. You and me, to make it hurt. Disappear into the dirt. —Breaking Benjamin</p><p>Not very good quality, just an idea stuck in my head. Sequel to Of Crows and Feral Cats, takes place after Itachi's time with Akatsuki. He and Asuka continued their relationship over the years, though she remained a Konoha shinobi, and they eventually got together once he realized that she had always known the truth behind what he had done.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Not one of my best, just an idea that was stuck in my head. I love BB more than life itself, and yeah...this just sort of happened one afternoon.

I have nothing left to give. I have found the perfect end. You and me, to make it hurt. Disappear into the dirt.

***

 

Itachi sat on the icy stone floor and waited in the darkness of the Uchiha fortress. It wouldn’t be much longer now. It couldn’t be. He doubled over, coughing hard, and he tasted the thick, metallic tang of blood in his mouth. Not much longer. Unable to breathe, he groped for his medicine, but a warm, callused hand covered his.

“Let me,” a woman’s voice said.

He hadn’t even sensed her chakra until she had touched him, but he supposed he should have known she would be here. She was always there. He looked up at her out of long habit, but his eyes showed him nothing but a blur of motion, an interruption in the torchlight. He wished he could see her again, but he dared not waste his remaining strength on activating the Sharingan before it was needed. After all, he had memorized her face.

“Asuka,” he whispered fondly. “Go.”

He felt a soft cloth wiping his face, and then a bottle of water was pressed into his left hand and three small pills into his right. She never did listen. He surrendered and forced himself to swallow them, fighting the urge to cough again until they were down. After a few minutes, the pressure in his chest eased somewhat.

“Go. This is not your fight,” he said, more strength in his voice now.

Her silky hair brushed his shoulder as she shook her head. “Look at yourself. It won’t be a fight at all.”

That was true; he had struggled to hold it off for years now, but he knew his body was failing him. He could see clearly only with the aid of the Mangekyo Sharingan, which was slowly destroying what remained of his eyes, and his illness had wreaked havoc on his heart and lungs. His strength was all but gone, but this fight wasn’t for him, it was for Sasuke. Even thinking his little brother’s name brought a stab of pain to his heart. He had made so many mistakes with Sasuke, and now, he had one last chance to right them. Nothing could get in the way of that.

“I don’t want you here, Asuka-chan.”

“Tough shit.”

 _Tough shit, chibi._ Shisui’s voice echoed in his mind, bringing back the long-suppressed memory of that last day on the banks of the Naka. Perhaps it was natural for Asuka, as Shisui’s half-sister, to sound so much like him. A fitting punishment for Itachi to hear the echo of his beloved cousin’s voice, his first failure, as he faced his worst one.

He reached out with his chakra and felt his brother’s approach. Finally. “If you must stay, then do not interfere. He needs this.” _I need this_.

“Selfless little baka.” Asuka leaned down and kissed him gently, and then walked away.

He heard her footsteps fade into silence and her chakra vanished, either gone, or hidden from even his acute perception. He couldn’t tell. Itachi tried to stand, but his legs wouldn’t support him, so he settled for dragging himself to the throne on the dais at the front of the room. It was forbidden for any Uchiha to take the Founder’s seat, and to Sasuke, it would appear to be the height of arrogance and disdain for the clan for Itachi to claim it.

Indeed, when Sasuke entered the room, Itachi felt the angry flare of his dark chakra, despite the distance between them. He felt his lips turn up in a small smile; Sasuke had grown so strong, despite his mistakes. He was not quite what Itachi had been before his illness, but he was close. Closer than Itachi had ever anticipated he would be when he had been teaching him to throw _shuriken_ for the first time, or spending a rainy afternoon explaining the mechanics of chakra manipulation behind the _katon_ jutsus to a wide eyed seven year old.

Itachi activated the Mangekyo and studied his brother’s face, now sharp and narrow with the loss of childhood’s roundness. He had grown up so much in the years since Itachi had last seen him. At sixteen, he was a man instead of the boy of Itachi’s memories. Yes, he had grown strong, but Itachi was troubled to see how pale and thin his brother had become. And his eyes... The hatred in those onyx orbs cut Itachi deeper than any blade could have done. The boy he recalled should not be capable of a look like that. Perhaps it was as Kisame had said, that letting his brother live was not kindness or mercy, but the worst kind of torture. _I’ve ruined you,_ _otouto. I am so, so sorry._

He watched as his brother stalked toward him, every step sending pulses of furious chakra out from his body. Itachi suppressed another coughing fit; he had to be strong for Sasuke, as he had always been. _Just a little longer._

Sasuke stopped in front of him and activated his Sharingan, and Itachi almost wept with joy to see that while they now contained all three _tomoe_ , his brother had not attained the Mangekyo. The bond between his brother and the blond _jinchuuriki_ was strong, and when he had seen that, he had prayed to every god, goddess, and spirit he had ever heard of that Sasuke would not go that far in his pursuit of power. Even if it was the only prayer of his that would ever be answered, it was enough.

“How much can you see with those Sharingan eyes?” he asked softly.

“I see you dead at my feet,” the younger man spat.

“Is that so?” Itachi shook his head and _shunshin’ed_ to a point just behind Sasuke to hide the single tear that fell from his eye. “Well, go on. Make it happen.”

Itachi drew a single _kunai_ and twisted, but Sasuke matched him and blocked it easily. He drew the mid-length sword at his back for a counterstrike, but he had hardly gotten it out of its sheath before Itachi struck again. Their two weapons connected, neither overcoming the other for a long moment before Itachi withdrew. He sidestepped and caught his brother’s arm, trapping it and bringing a knee up toward his stomach. Sasuke turned his body out of the way and used his momentum to free his arm, but he wasn’t fast enough to avoid Itachi’s kick to his chin.

The younger Uchiha grunted and struck again almost immediately. He wound his fist into Itachi’s Akatsuki cloak, dragging him back as he brought his sword around. Itachi shrugged out of the excess fabric and slipped away, flinching at the sudden cold on his feverish skin. Before Sasuke could react, he closed the distance between them and knocked the sword out of the younger man’s hands. Sasuke didn’t even look toward it once he realized it was out of reach. Instead, his hands blurred through the signs for the _chidori_.

Itachi had seen his brother use the technique before, and he was impressed by the increased control Sasuke was demonstrating over his chakra. It was much more precise, more focused. He would not be able to catch it bare handed as he had years ago, when his brother had found him in that seedy hotel during his search for the _jinchuuriki_. He tensed up as his brother charged, waiting until the last possible moment to avoid the blow, but Sasuke stopped short and drove the chakra spear into the ground.

 _What the—_ Itachi leapt backward as sharp pieces of stone flew toward him, but Sasuke was already in the air to meet him, his sword back in his hand. _So fast,_ Itachi thought, amazed at the improvement in his brother’s taijutsu. There was no time to avoid the blow. Itachi gasped as Sasuke extended his arm to thrust two feet of steel into his torso. It went through clean, Sasuke’s proficiency with the weapon allowing him to miss lodging it in any of the rib bones or the spine. They fell to the ground and Sasuke leaned over him, a look of surprise on his face, as if he hadn’t expected that to work.

“You have...become strong,” Itachi whispered.

“I have one final thing to ask of you,” Sasuke said, staring down at him.

 _Completely unaware of his surroundings..._ Itachi raised a trembling hand to poke him in the forehead as he had done when they were children, but he couldn’t quite reach. Instead, he pointed back toward the throne. Sasuke’s head snapped toward it and Itachi had to fight hard not to laugh at the open shock in his eyes when he saw his brother still sitting calmly upon the high seat; he had never moved. The body beneath Sasuke dissolved into a flock of crows that flew away toward the high, narrow windows.

Sasuke rose, furious at having been fooled by a simple genjutsu. “Your favorite little farce. I should have known.”

“So what is it you wanted to know, _otouto_?” Itachi asked, privately agreeing with him. “It may not be the last thing, but I will still hear what you have to say.”

Sasuke just glared. Itachi shook his head at the boy’s childishness, but before he could react, a sword was driven through the hard stone and into Itachi’s back. As before, it went through flesh and muscle and Itachi looked down to see the length of steel protruding from his chest. He coughed up a mouthful of blood as he stared at the clone of his younger brother, still standing where he had been before. He watched as it evaporated into a triad of pale serpents.

 _Caught by my own trick,_ he thought ruefully. “Genjutsu. I am impressed.”

“You _will_ answer me, you bastard,” Sasuke snarled from behind him, twisting the sword without moving the sharp steel more than a centimeter closer to his intact heart. “I won’t let you die until you do.”

Itachi didn’t let himself cry out from the pain, but it was a near thing. “You deliberately avoided an easy kill. That was foolish.”

“Do you remember what you said that night, about the Mangekyo Sharingan?” Sasuke asked.

Itachi did, and he had regretted it every day for many years now. He had revealed the location of the Uchiha clan’s secret library, which contained the information on how the Mangekyo could be obtained, what it could do, hoping to inspire his brother to learn all the secrets of the clan that no one would be able to teach him now. It wasn’t until he had seen a glimpse of his twelve year old brother and his blond teammate laughing and smiling almost like ordinary children as they bickered over who would be able to climb a tree the fastest that he had realized what a mistake it had been. Sasuke had a true friend, a chance at happiness, and if he threw that away, he would never be the same.

“You said I would be the third to activate it. Who else was there?” he demanded.

“Why do you concern yourself with such questions?” Itachi asked tiredly.

“Because I will kill him when I’m through with you.” The calm certainty in the young Uchiha’s voice was startling. “When you wiped out our clan, you mentioned another. I know now that you didn’t act alone. Not even you are capable of taking out that many men without aid.”

 _You’re the smart one, aren’t you?_ he remembered asking one night, so long ago, when Sasuke had found him hiding in a tree after an argument with their father. The boy had always been perceptive, and Itachi had wondered how long it would take him to realize this. “You finally figured it out.”

“Who is it?” Sasuke demanded, twisting the sword again.

“Uchiha Madara,” Itachi said quietly. “One of the founders of Konoha, and the first to awaken the Mangekyo Sharingan.”

“He should be long dead by now,” Sasuke said. “Don’t play with me.”

From a far off memory, Itachi heard Sasuke’s little voice demanding the truth. _“I’m not a baby. Don’t lie to me,_ _Nii-san.”_ He wasn’t sure if it was the pain of that memory that caused his chest to burn, or if Sasuke had jerked the blade again. He didn’t really care. “Madara is alive. Whether you believe this fact is entirely up to you.”

“You’ve lost your mind!” Sasuke shouted.

“Each of us lives dependent and bound by our own knowledge and awareness, and we call it ‘reality.’ But one man’s reality is another man’s illusion. In the end, we all live within our own fantasies.”

“What are you trying to say?”

“That thinking Madara is dead is merely an arbitrary assumption that you’ve made without any knowledge of your own.” He took a breath to steady himself before he could continue. “Exactly the same way that you once assumed I was a kind, gentle older brother. I let you believe that for only one reason. To know if the Uchiha blood ran as true in your veins as it does in my own, to see how powerful you could become.”

Sasuke hissed. “What happened that night…I thought it must have been an illusion. I wanted to believe that it was some kind of genjutsu. That you would never have... But I know that was true, and there is no escaping that fact.”

Itachi heard the shrieking of Sasuke’s chakra as the younger man activated his _chidori_ a second time. _Yes,_ _otouto._ _End it. Please..._ Itachi flinched as the spear of azure chakra slammed through the stone back of the chair, a good six inches to the left of his head. _Dammit._

“I can see through your genjutsu now,” Sasuke snarled.

Itachi released the illusion that he had been holding with a sigh. “Such confidence. I suppose I’ll have to take your word for it.”

Again, Sasuke froze, shocked as he saw that his sword had struck nothing but empty air, and his _chidori_ had not pierced the throne, but had instead slammed into the wall in the opposite direction. The real throne was untouched, as was the older Uchiha. “I’m done playing games with you, Itachi!”

“It appears that you are capable of little else,” Itachi said. “Your Sharingan is still weak, as ever. You should have been able to see through that illusion.”

Sasuke activated his _chidori_ again, preparing for another strike.

“You couldn’t do it, could you? You couldn’t take the Mangekyo for your own, and yet you still thought you would have the power to face me?” he asked. If he could cement the idea that Sasuke had overcome a user of the Mangekyo without possessing it himself, he knew that nothing would be able to force his brother to take that final step in the Sharingan’s evolution. It was a delicate balance to strike, but if it saved his brother from the horror and agony that would come with striking down his closest friend, and protected his future clansmen from ever pursuing it, it would be well worth it.

Sasuke suddenly smiled and deactivated the _chidori_. “Alright. Then hurry it up and try to kill me with your precious Mangekyo eyes.”

Itachi wondered if the younger man had seen through his facade of strength and realized that Itachi was weaker than he had ever been in his life. If so, things could go very badly.

“Or am I too strong now for you to dare to test your capabilities against me?” Sasuke asked.

He almost sagged with relief. No, his little brother didn’t see that the older Uchiha was struggling just to breathe, let alone manipulate his chakra into a series of intricate genjutsus. Sasuke was just cocky. It was a side of the young man that Itachi feared would get him killed one day, but now, it saved them both.

Itachi pushed himself up from the chair for the first time since his brother had arrived. “Such confidence. The moment the Mangekyo Sharingan awakens, the users’ eyes progress toward darkness, and the more they are used, the faster the decline.”

“What does that mean?” Sasuke demanded.

“The Mangekyo will eventually lose its light,” Itachi replied sadly.

“Blindness,” Sasuke whispered, stunned. “So that’s the price, is it?”

Itachi nodded and slowly descended the steps from the high seat to where Sasuke stood. “You read the scrolls our family kept from before the founding of Konoha?”

“Exactly what is Madara?” Sasuke asked.

“The first man to tame the Kyuubi with his eyes. And the only one to uncover the other secret of the Mangekyo Sharingan.”

“What other secret? What other power does it possess?” Sasuke was growing angry now.

“The most important one of all,” Itachi said.

When he didn’t continue, Sasuke took a step toward him. “Tell me! What secret?”

“Let me explain a little of our clan’s past. Madara had a younger brother, Izuna.” Itachi paused as he cast a genjutsu to show Sasuke what had once been. He wove a scene of the Uchiha estate as it had once been, before the alliance with the Senju. Behind a house that looked so much like the one he and Sasuke had grown up in, two young men, clearly Uchiha clansmen, were sparring. “From the time they were children, the two developed their skills by competing with each other. Eventually, both brothers awakened their Sharingan, and became well known for their power. They continued to push each other, to see who was stronger and to hone their newfound abilities. And then...” The scene shifted, showing Madara and Izuna taking down some of their own clansmen in a moonlit forest. “The brothers killed the people who were most precious to them, awakening the Mangekyo. It had never before been seen in the Uchiha clan.

“Using this new strength, they united their clansmen under Madara’s leadership. However, Madara’s health quickly declined. As I told you, the more the Mangekyo is used, the more quickly its light fades, with the end result being total darkness. In exchange for its incredible power, it will shut itself down, cutting off the light forever. Madara tried every treatment he could find to try to restore it, but he had no success. He became lost in despair, and in the end, desperate to regain his lost power...” Itachi showed Sasuke an image of Madara reaching for his brother, a frightening, almost mad look on his face. Izuna backed away, but in the end, he would not fight Madara, even when the older man rested his fingers against Izuna’s left eye. “He stole both eyes from his younger brother. And so, Madara obtained a new kind of light. The Eternal Mangekyo, whose power will never fade.

“But another change also occurred. Madara gained even greater power through his new eyes. This does not always happen, but this was only discovered over time, after countless sacrifices, as Madara’s clansmen sought the power their leader had gained. Madara used his new power to conquer one shinobi clan after another, until he formed an alliance with the other most powerful clan of that age, the Senju of the forest. He and the leader of the Senju fought over how their new village would be organized, and though Madara lost the battle for leadership, he still lives on, his power intact. He’s been hiding among the shadows, and formed a new organization, Akatsuki, to serve his ends.

“When the Kyuubi attacked Konoha all those years ago, that was Madara’s doing, though the Yondaime was able to stop him, much to Madara’s surprise. In short, Madara has become a bitter, defeated loser now,” Itachi said, not troubling to hide his contempt for the man who had founded their clan. “He is not capable of the true strength of the Uchiha, but _I_ am. Now, I can finally obtain the power to surpass him.”

Sasuke stared at him as Itachi released the genjutsu, returning them both to the cold stone floor of the fortress. The younger man didn’t speak, but the fear in his eyes was clear as he guessed what Itachi was going to say next. Itachi longed to take away that fear, to tell his brother that it was just a story, that none of it had ever happened, but he couldn’t. Sasuke had held back for too long; if the young man was to kill Itachi, he needed another push.

“You, _otouto_ , will be my new light,” Itachi said, smiling wickedly.

Sasuke stepped back as Itachi summoned a giant beast of chakra, its tendrils reaching for the younger man’s face. When Itachi realized that Sasuke wouldn’t get out of the way in time, he redirected the tendrils to wrap around his body instead, immobilizing him. Now to hammer in the last nail in the coffin of the Uchiha clan’s barbaric past. “For generations, best friends slaughtered each other to obtain the Mangekyo, and then their siblings or parents to maintain its light. From the day you were born, you were destined for this bloody fate. My spare set of eyes. Come, brother,” he said, extending another tendril of chakra toward Sasuke’s right eye. “Free me from this darkness.”

A sudden burst of chakra from Sasuke shattered Itachi’s tenuous hold on the chakra creature he had created and it dissolved into nothing. He expected Sasuke to attack then, to let his rage give him the strength to finish what he had come here for, but the younger man didn’t move.

“So it was all for this,” Sasuke said softly, his eyes closed.

Itachi waited, uncertain, until Sasuke opened his eyes.

“I can finally accomplish my goal,” he said, locking eyes with Itachi fearlessly.

“You say you can see my death, but you cannot win against the Mangekyo. Without it, your dream is merely an illusion.”

“You can use those eyes all you like, but my hate will be enough to turn it into reality,” Sasuke said. His former bravado was gone, he was cold, focused. He was ready.

“Your reality is death,” Itachi said and closed the distance between them again.

Sasuke was ready for him. Using the seals on the bandages that covered his forearms, the younger man summoned _shuriken_ to his hands. He launched dozens of them toward Itachi, and his eyes widened when Itachi copied him, his own weapons knocking Sasuke’s out of the air before they could reach him. Itachi increased the speed, throwing five at once instead of four, pressing his little brother’s limits. Sasuke recognized that he couldn’t keep up and lunged forward, drawing his sword. Itachi had anticipated that, and easily grabbed both of Sasuke’s wrists before he could raise the blade enough to strike. The sudden movement took his breath away and almost triggered another coughing fit, but he kept his face impassive. His weakened muscles barely held Sasuke back, and he drew on his chakra to strengthen them as Sasuke strained to continue his forward motion.

Suddenly, Itachi leapt upward, three _kunai_ appearing in his hand so quickly that he knew not even Sasuke’s Sharingan eyes had seen him draw them. He watched in horror as the curse mark on his younger brother’s shoulder pulsed. Soon Orochimaru would strike, tired of watching Sasuke fail. A serpent suddenly burst from the center of the mark, rearing up toward him. Itachi threw his _kunai_ downward, and the snake moved in front of them to shield Sasuke.

Unfortunately, it also blocked Sasuke’s field of vision, and Itachi used that to move back into striking distance with another _kunai_. The serpent spun, covering Sasuke from head to toe and forcing Itachi to retreat again. As he did so, he formed a shadow clone, hoping that being able to attack from both sides would give him an advantage against this new defense.

Instead, he watched as the whirling snake turned into a _fuma shuriken_. Sasuke increased the rotation speed for half a second, and then launched it, correctly picking out the real Itachi from the clone. Itachi blocked it with a single _kunai_ , but the weapon was controlled by Sasuke’s own chakra, and continued spinning when it should have bounced aside.

Suddenly, he realized what Sasuke was doing. He had activated his _chidori_ again, but instead of charging, he used the thread of chakra between himself and the _shuriken_ to infuse the weapon with the cutting edge of the _chidori_. Itachi’s eyes widened as it began to form a small nick in the steel of his _kunai_ , slowly deepening it and moving a little closer to him. When he couldn’t keep it at bay anymore, he let it slice forward into his shoulder and smiled at the look of pure frustration in Sasuke’s eyes as his body melted into another flock of crows.

Where before, the crows had flown away and vanished, this time they flew straight at Sasuke, distracting him as Itachi _shunshin’ed_ close enough to kick Sasuke back across the room. The younger man hit the wall so hard that he cracked the stone and Itachi feared for a moment that he had put too much power into the blow. Sasuke looked up, struggling to stand as he activated his _chidori_ again, but Itachi _sunshin’ed_ forward and caught his wrist, slamming it back against the wall as his fist made contact with the younger man’s stomach.

He paused as Sasuke gasped for air, genuinely worried, and extended his chakra into his brother to get a feel for just how extensive his injuries were. He almost hit the boy again when he saw that he was still in pretty good condition, considering the blows he had taken. Clearly, Sasuke’s taijutsu development had involved only him being the one to strike his opponent. He had no idea how to take a beating.

Itachi wrapped the Sasuke’s mind in another genjutsu, in which he reached out to pluck the younger man’s right eye from its socket. “This is my reality,” he said quietly. “Give me your light.”

Sasuke screamed, unaware that it was an illusion, as Itachi dug his fingers into his eye and tore out the Sharingan. Just like that night when he had first trapped Sasuke in the dark world of the _Tsukuyomi_ , Itachi wanted nothing more than to drop the illusion and let him go. And just like that night, he ignored that desire in favor of another goal.

“I’ll take the other one too,” Itachi said, and it was enough to push Sasuke over the edge.

The curse mark spread across the left half of Sasuke’s face and body, first a vivid orange and red, then fading to black. Itachi felt his brother’s chakra triple, growing stronger every second until Sasuke broke away from his grip and shoved Itachi back. Instead of stopping, Sasuke continued drawing on the curse mark’s power, going directly to the second stage of its activation. Itachi stared at the hand-like wing that appeared on the right half of Sasuke’s body and recalled Orochimaru’s joy whenever the pale man had talked about his “research.” Seeing the results of his experiments on his little brother brought a new kind of anger to Itachi’s mind. Orochimaru’s spirit was hiding within Sasuke’s soul, and if he could keep Sasuke from killing him long enough to draw him out, he could destroy him. _And if you kill Sasuke in the process?_ he asked himself, and found that he had no answer.

And he had no time to search for one. Sasuke had a real chance of overpowering him now, even though he hadn’t fully broken the genjutsu that Itachi had placed on him. Itachi used that create a shadow clone behind Sasuke, making it wrap an arm around his neck to hold him as the real Itachi approached from the front.

“This is the difference between our strengths,” he said as he reached out to take Sasuke’s remaining eye.

Again, Sasuke’s chakra multiplied as he drew more power from the curse mark and reached the third stage. His entire appearance changed, his skin becoming darker, sickly looking, and his sclera turned black behind his Sharingan. Serpents burst from Sasuke’s back through the clone’s torso, but even as he destroyed the clone, the real Itachi trapped the younger man in the _Tsukuyomi_. It was the only chance he had against his brother’s new power.

It was enough. Sasuke shattered the genjutsu, but in doing so, he had used so much chakra that it forced him to revert to his ordinary human form. He reached up and touched his left eye, the one he had lost in the illusion, and saw that it was unharmed. There was no gaping hole in his face, no blood trickling down his cheek and over his hands. Itachi saw the disbelief in the younger man’s face quickly turn to anger, and then to exhaustion. Sasuke collapsed onto all fours, breathing hard as he tried to wrap his mind around what was real and what was illusion. Itachi took a step toward him, but his legs refused to support his weight and he dropped to one knee. The pain in his left eye was unbearable. _I shouldn’t have used the_ _Tsukuyomi yet. I may not be able to do it again._ He watched as Sasuke hauled himself to his feet and glared down at him, and he amended that thought. _Not that it would matter. He broke it through strength of will alone. That shouldn’t be possible without the Mangekyo, and yet, he did it. You are so much more than I ever imagined,_ _otouto._

“I told you, Itachi,” Sasuke said, his voice steady. “You can use those eyes of yours as much as you like, but my hatred for you will make my ‘illusion’ real.”

Itachi made himself rise. “Will it, now? You saw your eyes torn out in my genjutsu. Allow me to turn _that_ vision into reality for you.”

Itachi knew that his reliance on genjutsu would have to end. After breaking the _Tsukuyomi_ , Sasuke would not be snared by another such other technique. He gathered his chakra and started weaving the signs for _Amaterasu_ , but Sasuke had anticipated him and had already summoned another _fuma shuriken_ and launched it at him. Itachi was forced to break the sequence of hand signs to dodge. He ducked under the _shuriken_ , but out of the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of the thin wires that ran from the weapon back to Sasuke’s hand. Sasuke pulled back and changed the weapon’s course, pulling it apart. Itachi tried to avoid it, but one of the metal shards tore into his thigh, sending him to the ground.

He looked up at Sasuke’s satisfied smile and cursed. He knew he was capable of dodging something like that, but it was as if his body was no longer willing to respond to his mind. _I don’t have a lot of time left_ , he thought, suppressing another coughing fit that threatened to steal his breath away. He wasn’t going to draw Orochimaru’s chakra out if he allowed Sasuke to kill him so easily. He barely managed not to cry out as he rose, giving his leg no choice but to support his weight.

“Getting tired, Itachi?” Sasuke asked contemptuously.

Itachi answered with a glare. Sasuke was getting cocky again, and now, it was not entirely undeserved. No one had landed such a blow against the older Uchiha in many years, and it might prove to be decisive.

Sasuke quickly wove the signs for the _katon_ and breathed out a fireball. Itachi jumped clear of its path, but Sasuke was already there, _chidori_ activated and aimed at his heart. Itachi managed to deflect the blow into the ceiling, but only just. He flipped backwards out of the hole it created and sent his own fireball into the smoky room. He felt it the moment the chakra-infused flames made contact with Sasuke’s body and instantly pulled back. He anxiously watched the smoke and dust clear, looking for some sign of his brother. He saw a dark outline on the other side of the mess. He cast a subtle _fuuton_ to finish blowing the debris out of the way and saw that Sasuke was only singed, having activated his curse mark again and used the hand-shaped wing to shield himself from the flames.

Both brothers cast another fireball simultaneously, and the collided in the space between them. The raw power behind Sasuke’s flames was staggering now that he was using the curse mark to augment them. And to think, this was the boy who had spent weeks burning his lips and hands as he tried to master the technique. Now they were strong enough to force Itachi to give ground, to pull his flames back foot by foot as Sasuke’s advanced. Yes, his brother had grown strong indeed.

Itachi blocked out the burning pain in his eyes and brought forth _Amaterasu_ , the all-consuming fire that was the second gift of the Mangekyo. They cut through Sasuke’s fire like a blade through butter, forcing the younger man to drop the _katon_ entirely. Itachi called the flames back before they could touch Sasuke, but they had done their work in eliminating the _katon_ fireball. He cursed silently as blood ran into his eye, burning as if the black flames themselves had latched onto his iris. _How many more can I do?_

Sasuke seemed to recover from his shock at not being burned alive and ran toward him. _Too fast, I have to slow him down,_ Itachi thought, and cast short bursts of _Amaterasu_ fire at the younger man, forcing him to dodge repeatedly as he approached. Very carefully, Itachi cast another burst of flame and scored a direct hit on the wing-like appendage on his brother’s shoulder. Sasuke dropped to the ground screaming, unable to put out the fire that was consuming him. Itachi fought to restrain the hunger of the fire, keeping it only on the wing and away from his brother’s true body. _If this doesn’t draw Orochimaru out, I’m not sure what will_ , he thought, watching as Sasuke started to collapse and the wing was eaten away.

He approached the younger man cautiously. Sasuke was alive, that much was certain, but the extent of his injuries was unclear. He knelt by the unconscious form and reached for him, but the moment his hand made contact, Sasuke’s body dissolved and melted away, revealing a deep crack in the stone beneath him. Itachi peered down, sensing Sasuke’s chakra below, in the room they had left just minutes ago. He was on his feet and looked alright, but as Itachi watched, Sasuke drew on the curse mark again, going straight to stage three, the total transformation.

Itachi tried to back away, but this time, he couldn’t fight off the coughing fit that left him immobilized, gasping for air. It only worsened the pounding behind his eyes. He couldn’t move enough to dodge the fireball that tore through the stone roof, but he was able to ride the hot air current to the outside of the flames and turn in the air to soften his landing. He regained his feet, but Sasuke sent more fireballs upward, forcing him to keep moving until simple exhaustion forced Sasuke to stop. Itachi dropped to one knee again, taking advantage of the brief respite while his brother recovered. He couldn’t open his right eye anymore, and when he reached up to touch it, his fingers came away stained with blood.

“That _Amaterasu_ has taken quite a toll on you,” Sasuke called.

“And the curse mark on you,” Itachi replied, annoyed with how breathless his voice sounded.

Sasuke sighed and the curse mark receded, returning him to his normal appearance. Even from here, Itachi knew that he didn’t have the chakra to sustain its power anymore. Sasuke was barely conscious, but he was not giving up.

“You always were a stubborn child,” Itachi said quietly, not really intending for the words to carry. Sasuke didn’t appear to hear him as he pushed himself to his feet again. His legs trembled slightly, but he didn’t fall. Itachi rose as well. “That substitution. It was one of Orochimaru’s creations, meant to deceive the enemy. Unfortunately, it uses an inordinate amount of chakra for something so simple. You’re empty.”

Thunder crashed in the distance, heralding an oncoming storm. “You’re right. I’m out of chakra,” Sasuke called. “Those fireballs took the last of it.”

Neither man moved for a long moment, and then the skies burst. Itachi closed his eyes briefly as the cool drops shattered against his face, washing some of the blood out of his eyes. When he looked back down at Sasuke, he was surprised to see the same cocky expression that the younger man had worn before.

“Did you really think I would come here unprepared?” Sasuke continued. “This jutsu is much like your _Amaterasu_ , it’s impossible to avoid.”

Itachi followed his brother’s gaze up toward the clouds. What had Sasuke been holding in reserve?

“Now, I will make my ‘illusion’ into reality,” Sasuke shouted. “This is where you die, Itachi!”

The lightning that had been flickering in the clouds suddenly coalesced into a single point directly above Itachi’s head. He stared up at it in shock as he understood. Sasuke hadn’t been trying to hit him with those fireballs earlier, he had been deliberately destabilizing the atmospheric temperature to create a thunderstorm. To create lightning. Itachi had known that Sasuke had an affinity for both fire and lightning jutsus, but he had never considered this kind of application. It was...

“Brilliant,” he whispered.

Sasuke activated his _chidori_ , taking advantage of the raw energy of the storm rather than using his own chakra as he leapt out of the room and onto the roof, and then up onto one of the high decorative walls that displayed the Uchiha crest for all in the valley to see. From his perch up there, he began manipulating the lightning in the sky, churning it, focusing it into a useable form. When he finally struck, Itachi realized that the lightning would be too fast to dodge. Too fast even to see.

Sasuke nodded, as if he knew that Itachi had finally realized his plan. “I call it _Kirin._ ”

Itachi shook his head at the continuation of the Uchiha mythology, naming yet another technique after the divine. It was an old motif, and he wasn’t surprised that Sasuke had stuck with it. As he watched the lightning form the shape of a dragon, he wasn’t so sure that the name was a bad choice. It truly looked like something only a god could create. Itachi’s eyes widened as the lightning flared. There could be no dodging it. But maybe...

“So, this is the death you saw for me?” he asked mildly as the dust cleared.

Sasuke’s eyes snapped up, watching as Itachi slowly pushed himself up from the ground. “How...”

Itachi made it to his knees and looked up to see his brother drawing on the curse mark again. Itachi could do nothing to stop him as Sasuke entered stage three again.

“Damn you!” the younger man shouted. “How? How did you survive?”

Itachi smiled at the boy’s consternation. It reminded him of the time Sasuke had thought Itachi had cheated in a chess match and had thrown such a fit that half the clan had come running, thinking the young boy was being attacked. “Without this...I wouldn’t have,” Itachi said, bring to life the translucent, orange skeleton that had surrounded him during the moment when Sasuke’s _Kirin_ had struck. “You really have...gotten stronger, Sasuke. Now, I’ll show you my ace in the hole. _Susanoo_.”

“ _Susanoo_?” Sasuke asked, staring up at the ghostly form that surrounded Itachi.

“ _Tsukuyomi_ and _Amaterasu_... When these two powers awakened, one more jutsu took root in my eyes. If you are hiding another power, little brother, don’t hold back,” Itachi said. _Come on, Orochimaru. I don’t have forever._

Itachi poured more chakra into _Susanoo_ , forcing himself to endure the feeling of each and every cell in his body being set on fire. The Guardian’s protection came at a heavy cost, and would surely kill him if he kept it up too long. But that was alright. The skeleton gained muscle, then flesh, then robes. The true _Susanoo_.

“What’s the matter? Finally out of options?” he goaded.

Sasuke’s eyes widened and Itachi knew he had him. Orochimaru had surfaced, and Sasuke would let him. He watched as Sasuke struggled with the other being within his body, and then suddenly, eight pale white serpents burst from the young man’s back. They grew until they were taller even than their host, snapping their fangs in Itachi’s direction. It was now or never.

Itachi stepped forward, but stayed within the protection of _Susanoo_. He dared not leave it in his current condition. As if fate felt he needed a reminder of exactly how far he had fallen, his chest constricted for a moment, cutting off all air. _I have to finish this quickly._

The closest of the serpents struck, and Itachi used _Susanoo_ to slice clean through its neck. Three more lunged toward him, and Itachi used _Susanoo_ ’s shield, the famous _Yata_ Mirror, to block them before beheading them as well. Some of the others tried to wrap around the ghostly form that Itachi had summoned, as if they were constrictors rather than venomous serpents, but _Susanoo_ easily broke away from them and removed their heads as well.

The final serpent, however, did not charge. It reared its head back and opened its mouth. _At last,_ Itachi thought wearily, watching as Orochimaru’s form rose up from within the snake’s mouth and drew forth his _Kusanagi_ sword.

“This is what I’ve been waiting for,” Orochimaru called down to Itachi. “Thanks to you, Sasuke no longer has the strength to control me. He won’t be able to resist as I take over his body.”

Itachi took a shaking step toward the serpent, cursing his failing body. He could not die yet. He had to finish this. Now. He used _Susanoo_ ’s great sword and thrust it through Orochimaru’s chest, but it didn’t have the power of his earlier blows.

Orochimaru laughed. “Do you really think that you can kill me with something like that?”

Itachi poured his chakra into the Sword of _Totsuka_ , sealing Orochimaru’s spirit within the weapon. The _Totsuka_ blade was little more than an ordinary sword unless the wielder had the strength to unlock its true potential. Itachi had held back from doing so as long as he could, but now, he activated the weapon’s sealing ability. Orochimaru would be trapped for eternity within the blade, his mind locked into a genjutsu of peace and tranquility. _Even if it isn’t Hell that I’m sending him to, he won’t be able to hurt my brother anymore. That is what matters_.

The terrified realization on the pale man’s face was almost amusing. “I’ve searched for that weapon for half my life and you had it in your possession the whole time?” Orochimaru screamed. “Itachi!”

Itachi felt a small smile turn his lips as Orochimaru and his eight-headed serpent were drawn into the blade and out of the younger man. “This is it, Sasuke. Now you can have what you came for,” he whispered to himself, knowing that his brother was too far away to hear. “I’m sorry I kept you waiting so long.”

Gasping for breath now, Itachi watched as the sealing was completed, and noted that a small, pure white serpent had escaped the vortex. He didn’t know how much of Orochimaru’s spirit it contained, but he refused to take the risk. He slowly gathered his remaining chakra to destroy the creature, but he doubled over, coughing violently. _Not yet. Not yet._ He didn’t have the strength to manage another strike at the escaping snake, so he fanned the _Amaterasu_ flames that were devouring the surrounding valley and trusted them to catch the serpent in their wake. They would be drawn to its chakra.

Sasuke was panting as well, too exhausted to maintain the Sharingan any longer. He looked up at Itachi with his own onyx eyes, and behind the anger that his trump card had failed, Itachi thought he sensed a hint of gratitude for Orochimaru’s destruction. Itachi took a step toward him, but suddenly there was a searing pain in his chest and his vision tunneled. He tried to keep moving, but his body wouldn’t respond except to cough up another mouthful of blood as he fell to his knees. _Cardiac arrest already? No, not yet. I can’t die yet._ It was too much. He couldn’t block out the pain, couldn’t take control. _Yes, I can. This is for Sasuke,_ he thought as the _Susanoo_ began flickering out of existence. Sasuke took advantage of Itachi’s momentary weakness and launched an explosive _kunai_ toward him, and Itachi forced the spirit guardian back into the physical world to block it.

Itachi staggered toward his younger brother, keeping _Susanoo_ ’s formidable chakra around him. He felt the blood trickling from his mouth and eyes, but he didn’t have the strength to wipe it away. _It’s almost over. Just a little more._ “Your eyes are mine, _otouto_ ,” he said quietly. _My life is yours._

Sasuke drew his sword and charged him, but the _Yata_ Mirror, deflected his attack easily, knocking the blade from his hand. Sasuke flew backward and landed hard, but he got to his feet before Itachi reached him. Itachi raised his hand again, reaching for his brother. Sasuke backed away from him, but there was nowhere to go. The younger man’s back pressed against the stone wall and he watched in horror as Itachi’s trembling hand inched closer to him. In that moment, the _Susanoo_ faded completely. Sasuke flinched and closed his eyes as Itachi closed the distance between them. _I love you,_ _otouto_ , Itachi thought. _Just one last time before I leave this world, I wish I could hear you call me_ _Nii-san again._ Itachi tapped two of his bloody fingers against his brother’s forehead as he had done when they were children. Sasuke’s eyes flew open in shock, and he seemed frozen, unable to react as Itachi’s hand slid down his face.

When he collapsed, Itachi was already fading into unconsciousness. He didn’t feel his face slam into the cold stone or his wrist snap beneath him as he hit the ground. It was finally over. Orochimaru was dead, that last serpent would be devoured by the vestiges of Itachi’s _Amaterasu_ flames that still burned in the forest around them. Sasuke was free of the curse mark’s dark power, and after killing the man who had slaughtered an entire clan, he would be welcomed back to Konoha as a hero. The clan that Sasuke would build would not be haunted by the pursuit of the Mangekyo; Sasuke would undoubtedly despise the power after seeing what it had turned Itachi into. And Itachi had implanted one last failsafe in case Madara came after Sasuke. It was all over.

_Sasuke is safe. That’s all I ever wanted._

 

Itachi lay there in darkness, the pain from his wounds receding. _So this is what it feels like to die,_ he mused. _No pain. No fear. I wish I could have done it sooner._

Dimly, he heard the sound of impact, flesh on flesh. But who could Sasuke be hitting? Surely not Itachi, since he didn’t feel anything. Crack! There was that sound again, and this time he heard Sasuke cry out. Itachi fought to open his eyes, to see who was attacking his little brother, but he couldn’t. He couldn’t move at all.

“You little bastard! How could you!” a woman’s voice shouted. “Everything he did was for you! Everything!”

 _Asuka, no! You’ll ruin everything!_ he wanted to shout, but no words came out. He lay there in darkness and he couldn’t even weep as Asuka tore apart the delicate illusion Itachi had created for his brother. If Sasuke learned the truth, he...Konoha... _No!_

“I should slit your throat right now, you son of a bitch!” Asuka shouted, and Itachi heard the rasp of steel being drawn.

At that, his body responded. He threw himself between Asuka and his brother, blindly grabbing her sword arm as he fell back to his knees.

“Itachi?” Sasuke’s voice whispered from behind him.

Itachi felt the muscles in Asuka’s hand shift as she released her weapon and he heard the clatter of steel on stone as it fell to the ground. The threat to this brother neutralized, his legs gave out and he fell forward against her. She caught him and eased him back to the ground.

“It’s alright, Itachi-kun. The Curse of Hatred does not run in my veins, or if it did, it was bled from me long ago. I won’t hurt him, no matter how much I want to tear his worthless heart out with my bare hands. I swear,” she murmured soothingly, and he knew she meant it.

“Itachi?” Sasuke’s voice asked again, sounding for all the world like a lost little boy. “What...”

“I’ll tell you everything,” Asuka said softly. “But first—”

Itachi blacked out before he could hear what Asuka wanted of his little brother.

 


	2. Chapter 2

Itachi woke up. He didn’t even bother with the details, that first fact was so surprising. _I’m...alive?_ Careful not to move, he took a quick inventory of himself. Everything hurt, but not as badly as it had...how long ago? Days, weeks? He had no idea. He tried to open his eyes to get a better idea of where he was, but they wouldn’t work.

“Easy, Itachi-kun. Don’t rub your eyes, okay? Just hold still,” a familiar voice said from his right.

“Asuka,” he rasped. “Where...”

“You’re in the hospital,” a different, lower voice replied. “You...well, almost died.”

Itachi turned toward that voice, trying to open his eyes again, which earned him a light tap on the side of the head.

“I said don’t touch your eyes, _baka_ ,” Asuka growled. “Don’t make me get someone to sedate you again.”

Itachi let his hand fall to his side. “Sasuke.”

There was an awkward sound of fabric rubbing as Sasuke shifted uncomfortably in his seat. “I’m...here, _Nii-san_.”

Itachi’s heartbeat stuttered. “You...”

“I told him the truth,” Asuka said, her fingers finding their way between his. “He tried to kill me a couple times, but now he knows.”

“Asuka—” he started, but she cut him off.

“I was _not_ going to let him kill you, not like that! If it hadn’t been for Orochimaru, I wouldn’t have let it go on as long as it did.”

He shook his head. “I told you not to interfere.”

“I needed to know, _Nii-san_ ,” Sasuke said quietly. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

 _Because you were a child and you would never have understood. Because the only reason Danzo didn’t kill you before you were strong enough to protect yourself was my promise to him that you would be loyal to Konoha. Because I didn’t want you to make the same mistakes I did, suffer the way I did._ “I should have,” he finally said. “Lies and deception have always been the way of the Uchiha. I kept pushing you away from me because I didn’t want to involve you...but now I think, maybe you could have been the one to change our father. The Uchiha clan. If I had faced you properly from the start...” _But I failed you. I drove you to become a criminal, to sacrifice every good thing you ever had in pursuit of power._ Itachi couldn’t bring himself to speak the words.

“I just don’t... How could Konoha sanction a mission like that? How could you go through with it?” The anger in Sasuke’s voice was there, but it wasn’t the blind rage that Itachi had feared. It was something more...defeated. Empty. Lost. “It shouldn’t be possible.”

“How can a six year old child kill an enemy without hesitation? It is the nature of shinobi to fall into darkness, and our villages only multiply that effect.” Itachi sighed. “And yet, how can we do otherwise? We can be nothing more than what we are.”

A door slid open off to his right and Itachi looked toward it out of habit, though he still couldn’t open his eyes.

“He’s awake then?” a woman’s voice asked.

“Yes, Tsunade-sama,” Asuka said, giving his hand a soft squeeze. “And lucid this time.”

 _Tsunade?_ Itachi reached out with his chakra and felt the enormous power of the aging Sannin healer. Then it hit him. Tsunade was the Godaime Hokage. _Konoha. I’m in Konoha._ A monitor beeped as his blood pressure and heart rate spiked and instantly Asuka released his hand. He started to sit up, but a heavy weight dropped down across his torso and strong hands trapped his arms.

“Itachi, no! Just calm down, she’ll explain everything. Sasuke’s safe. You’re safe,” Asuka said, adjusting her hand to avoid putting pressure on his healing wrist. “Please, you’re going to hurt yourself if you don’t relax.”

She was right, even that much exertion left him gasping for air, coughing up into what was probably Asuka’s face, even though he couldn’t see it. He forced his body to be still, but it took a full minute for Asuka to decide that it was okay for her to climb off of him.

“You two. Out,” Tsunade barked.

Sasuke made a sound like he was going to protest, but Itachi shook his head firmly. “I’m fine. Go.”

Itachi listened as their footsteps receded and then stopped about an inch outside the doorway. He heard Tsunade snort. Sasuke and Asuka apparently had the same ability to follow orders to the letter and still drive the person giving them to drink. He laid there in silence as Tsunade dragged a chair over and sat beside the bed.

“Uchiha Itachi. Who would’ve thought I’d be treating you someday?” she said with a sigh.

“I never anticipated it, Hokage-sama,” he said softly, waiting.

“I know what happened. Sarutobi-sensei left records for his successor, things that no one else could know. I have to say, the part about you was among the most shocking of the things I learned when I came back here,” she said. “No one knew, not even the council. Just Sarutobi and Danzo, and now both of them are dead.”

 _Danzo is dead? How?_ Itachi couldn’t find the strength to ask. Did it even matter? He knew he was entirely in her power, and if she felt that she needed to execute him for his crimes, she was more than capable of doing so. Even if he did have the strength to fight her, he wouldn’t have.

“It will be tough to tell everyone,” she continued. “No one will want to accept that you’re more than a psychotic ex-ANBU who slaughtered his family, or that the village leadership could have been involved. They won’t have much choice, I’m afraid.”

Itachi froze. “What?”

“I’ve issued full pardons for you and your brother. Technically, Asuka’s still a member of Root, so she was never under my command and therefore, has broken no laws. Not that that means much. I’ve lost count of how many times this wing of the hospital has been attacked since it got out that the three of you were here.”

Itachi’s heart twisted at that. “Any casualties?”

“The fact that that was the first question out of your mouth is part of the reason you’re still alive,” she said, and he heard the rueful smile in her voice. “No patients were hurt, but there were some fairly severe injuries to the vigilantes. I don’t like it when people threaten those under my protection, and apparently your brother and girlfriend weren’t too happy about it either.”

He almost smiled at that, but the thought of Sasuke fighting Konoha shinobi in order to protect him was painful. Fundamentally wrong.

“Damn, you sure are hard to hate,” Tsunade said with a sigh. “I tell you that armed men tried to kill you in your sleep, and you’re upset that your friends made them pay for it. We need more like you, Itachi.”

At that, a sudden tiredness swept over him. He barely had the strength to whisper, “No, you don’t,” before he fell into another dreamless sleep.

 

His recovery was a slow, painstaking process. Tsunade had returned the next day to discuss his condition, and it hadn’t been good news. His illness had ravaged his heart and lungs, but with treatment, there was potential for some improvement. Tsunade was at least confident that she could keep it from progressing further for a good while. His eyes, however, were a different story. The Mangekyo had lived up to its history and finally burned them to nothing. To prevent infection, Tsunade had been forced to remove them entirely and replace them with glass orbs, and the nerves were too badly damaged to attempt a transplant, even if there had been a set of eyes available to do so. He had suffered severe internal injuries and his chakra system had been strained to the max and badly damaged in the process, but if he built up slowly, he may be able to recover about forty percent of his old ability at best. With proper treatment and if he took excellent care of himself, Tsunade expected that he could live perhaps another twenty years, but he would never be an old man. The genuine sorrow in her voice when she said that had shocked Itachi more than the prognosis.

He had quickly turned the conversation to Sasuke, and was relieved to hear that his efforts not to hurt his brother more than necessary had paid off. The younger man had only suffered multiple cracked and fractured bones, extensive burns, severe chakra exhaustion, and minor damage to his muscles and internal organs. With Tsunade as his doctor, he had already made a full recovery. What disturbed him more was when she told him that despite being cleared to return to duty and given an honorary promotion to Jounin, Sasuke had resigned his position as a shinobi of Konoha. Sasuke never brought it up, and Itachi never asked what had motivated his decision. He knew, and he couldn’t even honestly say that it was the wrong choice to make.

Asuka, however, had chosen to carry on the Uchiha clan’s shinobi heritage. She’d assassinated Danzo (though “assassinated” implied that the battle hadn’t taken out ten city blocks, caused millions of dollars in collateral damage, and landed her in the hospital bed next to Itachi for two weeks, so perhaps that was the wrong word) and taken over as the head of the Root division of ANBU. While the program had been discontinued and no new recruits would be selected, the fact remained that there were two dozen Root shinobi left without a leader, and no one who hadn’t endured their training could possibly understand them. Even Itachi, who had perhaps lived the philosophy of sacrificing the self for the village better than anyone outside of Root, could not comprehend why they viewed him as some sort of hero. Asuka became the bridge between her men and the rest of the village, teaching each to understand the other. Sai, a dark haired young man with a talent for bringing his drawings to life, had started calling her _kaa-chan_ , mother, and the name had stuck, regardless of the age difference between her and those who used it.

After a month, Itachi was given permission to leave the hospital. Sasuke and Asuka, as well as an honor guard of four Root shinobi, escorted him out. Even blind, Itachi never stumbled, relying on a mix of his memories of the village, his sense of where the others around him were standing, and simple intuition. Most of the villagers avoided them, cowering on the either side of the street until the intimidating party of the three Uchiha clan members and their ‘guard dogs’ had passed, but after a while, Naruto had joined them, laughing and joking around, quickly irritating both Sai and Sasuke. Itachi smiled at his brother and instantly felt some of the tension go out of Sasuke’s chakra, only to return when his other former teammate joined their group. Itachi knew the kunoichi had been infatuated with his little brother since they were children in the Academy, though Sasuke had always been too caught up in his own hatred to return her feelings, but now, he sensed that something had shifted between them. It wasn’t love, it would probably never be that, but he could tell that Sasuke was moved by her unstinting devotion to him, even after he had abandoned Konoha and tried to kill her.

As they continued walking, Itachi found himself growing more and more tired. It was too deeply ingrained in him not to reveal his weakness, but even in his physical therapy, he had never managed to walk very far before he needed to rest and let his damaged lungs recover from the exertion. Asuka slid her hand out of his and disappeared for a moment, and then Itachi felt Sakura’s hand on his back, gently sending her chakra into his lungs to aid his labored breathing. Tsunade’s apprentice was very skilled, and with her assistance, Itachi managed to keep moving.

His memory of the village streets was shoddy, especially considering the extensive reconstruction after Orochimaru’s attack during the Chunin exams a few years ago, so when they finally stopped, Itachi had no idea where he was. Not for the first time, he cursed his blindness. This kind of helplessness was humiliating. He reached out with his chakra and sensed a chakra-reinforced wall a few feet ahead with an open gate directly in front of him. There were people on the other side, maybe twenty of them. He couldn’t recall many of their names, but he recognized them as more of Asuka’s Root shinobi. He reached out further, feeling the outline of the houses and streets in the neighborhood and he realized that he did know where he was.

He knew _exactly_ where he was.

“Welcome home, _Nii-san_ ,” Sasuke said quietly and led him through the gate.


	3. Chapter 3

The home that the Uchiha brothers had grown up in was filled with too many painful memories, so by unspoken agreement, it remained empty. Instead, Itachi settled into an apartment on the far edge of the Estate that been unoccupied even when he was a child. After finding lodging in the other abandoned houses on the Estate for her men, Asuka had moved in at the other end of the building. Her apartment was little more than a storage facility for her weapons and gear, though, as she spent most nights with Itachi. Sasuke had taken a large manor at the front of the property with a view of the gate, as befit the new Lord of the Uchiha. They had argued about it, Sasuke insisting that Itachi was the elder and deserved the position, but in the end, the village council had given them little choice in the matter. They would never accept Itachi as the Lord Uchiha, whether the title was his by blood right or not, and even if they would, he didn’t want it. Still, Sasuke came to him for guidance over every decision he was called upon to make. Itachi quickly realized that Sasuke would yield to any opinion that his elder brother expressed, and therefore, he offered little advice. The Lord Uchiha could not be so dependant upon others. Or so he thought. Sasuke was doing a very good job of proving him wrong, coaxing him into telling him what he thought about everything from the economic future of Konoha to forming yet another treaty with Mist, knowing it would be broken even more quickly than the last.

Sakura came to the Estate every day at first, to make sure Itachi was alright and to continue treating him. Sasuke was kinder to her now, and soon, Itachi found himself standing at his brother’s side during a small springtime wedding.

“Do you love her?” Itachi asked after the ceremony, as the two men sat on the dock of the lake where they had both mastered the _katon_ jutsus so many years ago.

“No.”

Itachi waited, knowing that there was more to his brother’s answer.

“But I don’t love anyone in that way, and at least she loves me,” Sasuke said, shaking his head. “I don’t understand it, but if I’m going to continue the Uchiha line, Sakura isn’t a bad choice to be the mother of the new generation. I think her kindness will be good for us.”

Itachi nodded. His brother was set on having children, on not letting the Uchiha name die out. They had discussed it, sometimes heatedly, but Sasuke had always ended up deciding that it was his duty to restore the clan. He had pressured Itachi and Asuka to do the same until Asuka had threatened to castrate him in his sleep if he ever mentioned the subject again.

 

Sasuke had asked Itachi what he should name the child the day he’d found out Sakura was pregnant with a baby girl. Sasuke confessed that he had been considering naming her Mikoto, after their mother, but eventually, the two of them had decided not to name any of his children after the former clan members. They were writing a new chapter in the history of the Uchiha, and both agreed that it should be untainted by the sins of their past. Sakura had been enraged that Sasuke hadn’t consulted her first, but even though she hated it, she understood that no matter how much Sasuke may have changed since she had fallen for him in the Academy, the clan was still foremost in his mind. She would always come second. Third, now that they had an heir. If she was a little less gentle the next time she gave Itachi his medicine, he didn’t blame her, and he never said a word to Sasuke.

“Say hello to Itachi, Hatsumi-chan,” Sakura cooed to the blanket-wrapped bundle in her arms.

Itachi had hesitated to touch her, feeling like he would somehow taint the child if he did, but Sakura had thrust her into his arms and before he knew it, he was holding the little girl and stroking her cheek. She was so warm and soft, and Asuka told him that the child was a perfect blending of her parents’ features, sharing Sakura’s pink hair, and Sasuke’s dark eyes.

Her twin brothers were born a year later. They resembled Sasuke so much that his brother had joked that he could save money on photographs of them by substituting his own childhood pictures. Asuka often said that having the children around was good for her Root shinobi, and for Itachi. It showed them what a real, human life could be like. She also joked that the three Uchiha brats were the most well-protected toddlers in the Fire Country after dismembering some unfortunate fool who had mistaken the children’s nursery for an easy target.

Itachi watched them through the years with a growing sense of trepidation in his heart. Hatsumi would be six soon, and old enough to enter the Academy. Sasuke and Sakura had never formally trained her or her brothers, but they had shown her a few basic techniques which she had quickly mastered, bought her books on ninjutsu and genjutsu, and encouraged her in her dream to become a powerful kunoichi. Itachi, who had made his first kill at five, couldn’t bear to think about this sweet little girl following that path, but every time he brought it up to Sasuke, the argument ended in a stalemate with Sasuke’s promise not to push any of his children to become shinobi if they didn’t want to, and his stubborn refusal to keep them from it if they did. He had later confided to Itachi that being excluded from power as a child was part of what had driven him to go to the lengths that he had to become strong, and he didn’t want any of his children to take that path. Itachi had given in grudgingly.

 

Itachi and Asuka went over to Sasuke’s house for dinner one night, a daily ritual since Sakura didn’t trust him not to skip meals and endanger his health, and smiled as the three children latched onto his legs. Unable to stop their momentum, Itachi braced himself as he slammed back against the wall. The impact knocked the wind out of him and he collapsed. For a long moment, his lungs tightened and he couldn’t breathe, but the frightened note in Sasuke’s voice was enough for him to take control and steady himself.

“Don’t worry. I’m fine,” he muttered, holding back the urge to cough.

“Careful, brats,” Asuka said, laughing as she helped him up. “He’s breakable, unlike me.”

“Sorry,” one of the twins, Dan, said, retreating from his uncle in embarrassment. “Did I hurt you, _ojisan_?”

Itachi shook his head, hiding his wince, and made it to the table without further incident, but all three children still clung to him until their mother told them to sit down.

“Itachi-ojisan, can I ask you a question?” Aoshi, the other twin, asked as Sakura set their plates on the table.

“You just did,” Itachi teased. “But you can ask another if you like.”

“Why don’t you and Asuka-obasan have any kids of your own?”

The table went silent and Itachi heard everyone stop breathing, waiting to see how he would react. Asuka took his hand under the table gave him a reassuring squeeze. She would handle it.

“Aoshi-chan, that’s really not something you should ask at dinner,” Sakura said, trying to defuse the tension.

“It’s okay,” Asuka said lightheartedly. “Do you know why our neighbors all call me _kaa-chan_?”

Aoshi hesitated, puzzled, but Hatsumi spoke up. “I think they’re joking, because you’re not old enough to be their mom.”

“You’re fucking right I’m not!” Asuka exclaimed, blithely ignoring Sakura’s disapproval as the children giggled at the curse word. “But I do look out for them, and that’s a full time job in itself. I’m also their Captain; I assign their missions and go on quite a few myself. I’m way too busy to have kids that I can’t take back to their parents when they piss me off.”

All three kids laughed, apparently satisfied with her answer. Itachi was grateful. He had told Asuka that he didn’t want to have children and had been surprised when she had agreed without objection. Her early training with Root had been much like Itachi’s with the clan, and harder in some ways. Danzo’s desire to have an agent with the Sharingan meant that he had been forced to alter her training so that she was not able to achieve the true emotionlessness that was the goal of Root, but she was still so emotionally damaged that she was incapable of bonding with another person deeply enough that their loss could awaken the Mangekyo. If anyone could come close, she said it would be Itachi, but true, unconditional love and affection were not possible for her. Neither of them were capable of raising a child the way they felt a child should be raised, and they both knew it. And if that child chose to become a shinobi... It didn’t bear thinking about.

 

Itachi attended Hatsumi’s entrance ceremony at the Academy, and that for her brothers the following spring. He and Asuka had stayed at the back of the room, allowing the other villagers to avoid him without having to go out of their way and miss this special moment in their children’s lives. Even on that first day, he had noticed the way the name Uchiha had alienated them from their classmates, and had heard more than one parent refer to them as having traitor’s blood in their veins. Only Naruto and Hinata’s two sons would go near them, and that was only in a fit of rebellion after Hinata’s clansmen tried to tell the boys not to. It had taken all his strength not to show his feelings to the kids, but the moment he got back to his apartment, Itachi had wept for the future that he feared awaited them.

Asuka had never acknowledged seeing Itachi like that, but it wasn’t long after that he heard rumors that a minimum graduation age of ten years old was going to be enacted for Academy students, with the standard track leading to graduation around the age of twelve or thirteen. He also heard that children under fifteen were going to be banned from taking the Chunin exams. These measures gained a lot of support in the hopeful post-war atmosphere that Konoha had taken on, and they eventually passed. Asuka never admitted to being the one to introduce the ideas, but then, she had twenty-three Root shinobi to do her bidding, so no one could prove it. Not even Itachi, but he knew anyway. She might complain about the children every chance she got, but she was just as worried about them as he was.

 

Itachi was alone one night that winter, Asuka was away on a mission with a few of her Root agents, so when he heard a knock at the door, he didn’t know who it could be. He extended his chakra cautiously, but whoever had been there was already gone. He opened the door anyway, half prepared for an attack, and he felt a piece of paper stuck to the outside of the door. He took it down and carried it back inside, frustrated that he couldn’t read it. Not even his chakra control was fine enough to sense the shapes of ink on paper.

A week later, Asuka came home, swearing up a storm about her hatred of snow, ice, and the ever-unprofessional Kirigakure ANBU, and saw the letter sitting unopened on the table. She read it to him.

 

_Itachi,_

_I know you can’t read this, but I’m sure you’ll find a way. I never thought you were the type to settle down and retire when there’s work to be done. Figured you’d want to know that we got him, for real this time. You owe me once you get reincarnated. Rest in peace, friend._

 

The letter wasn’t signed, but Itachi knew it was from Kisame. No one else had ever joked about Itachi’s impending death so boldly, and playing on the word ‘rest’ to mean both his retirement and his death was something only the shark man would find funny. And no one else had known of Itachi’s plan to go after Madara before his health had failed him and pushed his plan to die by Sasuke’s hand up by several years. _Kisame got him, huh? I’d love to know how he managed that._ His former partner’s blunt, taijutsu-based fighting style was ill-suited to take on a master of genjutsu, but Kisame wouldn’t lie about something like this.

Itachi sighed. Between Kisame and Asuka handling the only two men that he had ever really set his mind to killing, Madara and Danzo, Itachi couldn’t help but feel a bit useless. But then, he _was_ useless now, at least as a shinobi. Asuka had been helping him work through the _kata_ he remembered from his training, but everything felt clumsier now. There was no power in his strikes, no precision to his movements, and every few minutes he would have to sit and catch his breath. And he was slow. So incredibly slow. Without his vision, he could no longer use the _shunshin_ without risking a fatal collision.

He supposed he should be happy, the last loose end, tied up in a neat little bow made of bloody ribbons of flesh, but he wasn’t. _We can be nothing more than what we are._ Asuka’s words the night Itachi had left Konoha, came back to him. What was he, now? The _tensai_ of the Uchiha clan? The loyal shinobi? The heir? The traitor? He didn’t think he could be any of that anymore, so what was left?

That night at dinner, he didn’t go to Sasuke’s, and Asuka displayed the other reason that she never cooked for him, putting the lie to her claim of simple laziness. As Itachi chewed the undercooked, overseasoned rice, burnt meat, and mushy vegetables, he knew Asuka wasn’t eating. She tapped her chopsticks against the bowl occasionally to make it sound like she was, but it didn’t fool him.

“I’ve been thinking of leaving Konoha,” Itachi said finally.

“I thought you might,” Asuka replied after a long silence. “Sasuke won’t like it.”

Itachi nodded. He knew that his brother would not leave the family he had built himself, and that Sasuke would be furious if Itachi left him behind. Konoha and Sasuke had been the only things that mattered to him for so long, and now they were both as safe as he could make them, considering his limited strength. The villagers hated him, and weren’t afraid to show it when he left the Uchiha Estate alone. More than one gang of his former comrades had tried to kill him, and his refusal to fight them had forced Asuka to assign him a permanent guard of at least one of her Root shinobi at all times. What was left in Konoha for him, now?

“Where do you want to go?” she asked, not bothered by his silence.

He shrugged. “I never considered returning to Konoha, but I never saw myself anywhere else, either.” _Except Hell, but you ruined that plan,_ he thought, only half bitterly. “Somewhere where no one knows what I am, or what I’ve done. Somewhere without shinobi. Without war.”

“If you ever find a place like that, I’ll come with you,” Asuka said quietly.

But in the end, Itachi couldn’t bring himself to leave. Hurting Sasuke like that wasn’t worth whatever small comfort it might bring him. He endured the open hatred of the villagers and no longer showed any reaction to it. He resumed his dinners at Sasuke’s table, and he didn’t object when Sakura forced more pills down his throat, or jabbed another needle into his vein, or lectured him about the importance of continuing his physical therapy. He helped the children with their Academy homework when they showed up at his door after class. All three of them preferred his style of explaining things to their mother’s, as well as the way he bought them _dango_ and other treats at every opportunity. He found comfort in Asuka’s strong arms at night, and for those brief moments, he almost managed to forget. Almost, but not quite. He could never forget. No matter what else he became, he was still Konoha’s Uchiha Itachi. And he would have to live with that.

So he did, and as time went on, he found himself...not quite happy, but something close to content. Purposeful. When Sasuke and Sakura were fighting, and that happened fairly often, he was always ready when Sasuke turned up at his door with a black eye or a split lip and talk of filing for a divorce that, for the sake of his honor, he would never go through with. When Asuka returned from a mission and tried to hide another injury, he was the one to drag her to the medics; she was too afraid of hurting him to put up any real resistance, and he took advantage of that fact mercilessly. When Hatsumi first activated her Sharingan, he let her practice genjutsu on him for hours at a time, teaching her that the visual aspects of the illusion are only one facet of a successful takeover of the enemy’s mind. When Dan started taking pre-med courses in the Academy instead of combat and survival skills, Itachi was the first one he told. The boy had always been too kind to be a soldier and Itachi was glad he had recognized it before it was too late.

Aoshi, on the other hand, was determined to make Jounin as early as the new age restrictions would allow. His chakra control was nearly perfect, like his mother’s, and he had inherited the Uchiha bloodline’s natural power. He was the first of Sasuke’s children to graduate the Academy just two days after his tenth birthday. When he returned from a B rank mission that had gone terribly wrong, it was Itachi he had come to. One of his Genin teammates had been killed, and he had managed to awaken the Sharingan and had quite literally torn apart the man who did it. Itachi held him and let him cry, but he found he had no words of advice that could possibly help the young man. _This is the life of a shinobi. We do these things, and we go on._ It sounded cold even in his thoughts. Aoshi had returned to duty a week later, sharper, more focused, and had sworn that he would never allow another of his comrades to die. Itachi hoped he would be able to keep that promise, for his sake as much as his team’s.

 

By the time Dan graduated the Academy at the standard age of twelve and enrolled in the medical corps training unit, Itachi no longer had the strength to walk more than a few feet. Asuka had gone to the graduation in his place and brought the boy over afterward to tell him about the ceremony. Itachi had smiled and congratulated the little medic-to-be, and when the boy had asked if Itachi would come to his graduation from the medical school when he was sixteen, he had lied through his teeth and said that he’d be there. He didn’t have the heart to tell him that his condition had taken a turn for the worse, and not even Tsunade’s legendary skill could hold it back. By some unspoken agreement, their nightly dinners were now held in his apartment, and whichever members of Sasuke’s family were in the village at the time never failed to come. Itachi was never left alone anymore; when Asuka was away with Root, Sasuke stayed over to look after him. He tried to tell them that he didn’t need it, but that argument was spoiled when he started coughing up blood in front of them and passed out.

Just like in his fight with Sasuke, he tried to hold on, pushed his body to stay alive just a little longer, but the night that the blackness took him, he didn’t have the strength to fight it. He didn’t even know why he tried. _I just have to..._

 


	4. Chapter 4

Itachi watched from above as Sasuke wept over his body, cursing, knocking holes in the walls, and throwing anything that wasn’t nailed to the floor. Asuka stood to the side, silent tears falling from her emerald eyes. The commotion drew Sakura and the children, and they cried too, Aoshi hardest of all.

“I don’t know what they’re getting so worked up about. It’s not like you’d ever leave them,” a voice said beside Itachi.

A voice he hadn’t heard since he was a child.

“Shisui...” he whispered.

His cousin’s form materialized next to him, looking exactly as he had all those years ago, down to his windswept hair and rumpled clothing. “It’s me, _chibi_. I’ve always been here. Leave it to you to be too thick to notice.”

“How...” Itachi had never given much thought to the afterlife, souls, or ghosts. He didn’t know what was happening. It only now dawned on him that he could _see_ for the first time in years. He stared at his younger brother’s face, his eyes tracing the sharp, chiseled features that time had done nothing to soften. Sakura, Hatsumi, Dan, and Aoshi, he had never seen, but he thought he would have known their faces anywhere. And Asuka... He remembered the young woman she had been in ANBU, and saw that time had added wisdom and a sense of darkness to her face, but it made her no less beautiful.

Shisui put an arm around his shoulders. “‘How’ is a complicated question. I think that the Uchiha bloodline allows for a special kind of bond between us, something not even death can break. I’ve been by your side since that day at the Nakano.”

Itachi tore his gaze away from the scene unfolding below him and turned to his cousin. “So...this is what happens to us?”

Shisui laughed. “Always so fatalistic. You have a choice, ‘Tachi. You can stay, or you can go on.”

“And what happens if I go?” Itachi asked

“I don’t know,” Shisui admitted. “I don’t think anyone can know, unless they take that path.”

Itachi turned back to his brother, to his family, and watched as four of Asuka’s Root agents came to take away the body, his body, promising her that they would take care of the funeral arrangements. Sai, the young artist, reached out to wipe her tears away, and stared at the wetness on his hand as if he didn’t know what it was. Instantly, Asuka forced herself to stop crying and drew him aside, explaining in fumbling words how grief felt to a man whose emotions had been cut out of him as a child. He seemed to understand, and a single tear fell from his eye when he looked back. Through Asuka, the Root shinobi truly had become a part of the clan, even if they did not possess the Uchiha name.

“What happens if I stay?”

“You watch. You...” Shisui seemed at a loss for words. “You don’t have the same ability to act that you did when you were alive, but you can still help them, look out for them. Like I did with you. Your illness would have killed you a year before you fought Sasuke if it hadn’t been for me. I was that voice in the back of your mind telling you to hold on, to fight, to survive. I was the one who held you when you hid from Kisame so he wouldn’t see you break down. And I was the one who nudged him to follow you, once you were ready.”

Numbly, Itachi followed Sasuke as he walked away from the others, and Shisui followed in silence. Sasuke stopped at the docks, staring out over the dark water. He looked lost, as he had since he had learned the truth about his brother and his clan. Itachi stepped out onto the glassy lake and stood in front of him.

“Sasuke...” he said, and saw his brother’s eyes widen. “I love you. I’m sorry for everything.”

Sasuke reached out with a trembling hand, and it passed through where Itachi stood.

“He can’t see you, not even with the Sharingan,” Shisui said. “He can’t hear you, either, but he knows you’re there. That’s what it’s like to stay.”

“What about you? What happens to you now that I’m...” _Dead._ It felt too strange to say it.

Shisui shrugged. “Stop acting like I know how all this works. I’m not the _tensai_.”

Itachi punched him in the arm, the gesture felt so natural that he couldn’t have stopped it if he’d wanted to. “Stop being a smart ass.”

“You banged my innocent baby sister and you didn’t even marry her afterwards. I’m going to torture you for eternity,” Shisui said, straight-faced, as if it were his indisputable right to make Itachi’s afterlife hell.

Itachi winced, deciding that for his cousin’s sake, he wouldn’t point out exactly how _not_ innocent Asuka had been that first night. After Asuka had told him who she was, he had often wondered how Shisui would have taken their relationship if he had lived to see it. Now, he wasn’t sure he wanted to know after all. “Did you know about her? When you were alive, I mean.”

“No, Fugaku-sama didn’t tell anyone, and my father didn’t know. I wish I had, though.” Shisui looked over at her wistfully. “But I’m glad she was raised outside the clan, even if it was with Root. She’s better off.”

Itachi agreed, and he hated that he did. He hoped Sasuke had the strength to rebuild the clan in a way that no one would ever have to say that again, but looking at him now, he wasn’t sure. Sasuke had come to depend on him so much, when they were children and even more so now. If he abandoned him again...

“I’m not going anywhere,” he said finally.

Shisui smiled. “Neither am I.”


End file.
